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William Shakespeare was a British poet and playwright and writer.
William's father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant and official in Stratford. There are reports that he was a sailor for a time before joining a theater company in London. Beginning in the 1590s, Shakespeare began writing plays, and in 1593 he published a poem, Venus and Adonis, which became popular. He dedicated it to the Duke of Southampton, who was a philanthropist and patron of talent, and soon his business was booming.
From 1592 to 1600 Shakespeare wrote his dramas and romantic comedies "Richard III", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Romeo and Juliet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Merchant of Venice", as well as the comedies "Much Ado About Nothing", "Twelfth Night" and the tragedy "Julius Caesar". The playwright's business was so successful that he even bought a large house in Stratford. In 1599, Shakespeare became one of the owners, playwright and actor of the new theater "Globe". In 1603 King James took Shakespeare's troupe under his direct patronage. In the mature period, the great playwright turned to tragedies, there were "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth" and others.
Although in the 19th century researchers had some doubts about the authorship of many of these works, William Shakespeare is considered the greatest English playwright, one of the best playwrights in the world. His plays have been translated into all major languages and to this day form the basis of the world theatrical repertoire, most of them have been screened many times. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, and his plays and poems have sold more than 4 billion copies in the nearly 400 years since his death.
Stanley Whitney is a contemporary American artist. He is Professor Emeritus of Painting and Drawing in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia. His work is included in many public state collections.
George Leslie Hunter was a Scottish painter, regarded as one of the four artists of the Scottish Colourists group of painters.
The Besançon illuminator was a French miniaturist painter from Besançon who worked in that city in the 1440s-1470s, decorating mainly the Books of Hours.
Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.
Lucian Michael Freud was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata. His family moved to England in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism. From 1942 to 1943 he attended Goldsmiths College, London. He served at sea with the British Merchant Navy during the Second World War.
George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.
The Irish painter Roderic O'Conor was a pivotal figure in the post-impressionist movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Aligning with the Pont-Aven School, his work thrived in France amidst the artistic revolution of the 1880s and 1890s.
O'Conor's artistic methodology was profoundly influenced by his time in France, spanning nearly five decades. His signature technique, characterized by thick, adjacent strokes of rich, contrasting colors, owes much to the discoveries of the Divisionists and Vincent Van Gogh.
His journey also included a transformative Parisian period beginning in 1886, marked by experimentation and innovation. Later, his Bretagne sojourn from 1891 to 1904 was interspersed with managing inherited estates back in Ireland, which allowed him financial independence from his painting sales. O'Conor's final years from 1934 until his passing in 1940 were spent in Nueil-sur-Layon.
![John Gould | A monograph of the trochilidae, or… humming-birds [with supplement]. London, 1849–1887, 6 volumes](/assets/image/picture_3552940/b094e/kdmit0n6uq1f2b2uhgbazcrfdho9rt1csmh5zubfj-qmaakjbbcjxxkz5sgweau81699088078jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![John Gould | A monograph of the trochilidae, or… humming-birds [with supplement]. London, 1849–1887, 6 volumes](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3552940/b094e/kdmit0n6uq1f2b2uhgbazcrfdho9rt1csmh5zubfj-qmaakjbbcjxxkz5sgweau81699088078jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
The Irish painter Roderic O'Conor was a pivotal figure in the post-impressionist movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Aligning with the Pont-Aven School, his work thrived in France amidst the artistic revolution of the 1880s and 1890s.
O'Conor's artistic methodology was profoundly influenced by his time in France, spanning nearly five decades. His signature technique, characterized by thick, adjacent strokes of rich, contrasting colors, owes much to the discoveries of the Divisionists and Vincent Van Gogh.
His journey also included a transformative Parisian period beginning in 1886, marked by experimentation and innovation. Later, his Bretagne sojourn from 1891 to 1904 was interspersed with managing inherited estates back in Ireland, which allowed him financial independence from his painting sales. O'Conor's final years from 1934 until his passing in 1940 were spent in Nueil-sur-Layon.
